State Senator Briggs Hopson (R)
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State Senator Briggs Hopson (R) has filed a bill that would require Mississippi public schools to adopt specific policies to ban the possession or restrict the use of cell phones by students during class or while under the supervision of an employee of the school.
The legislation – SB 2151 – comes at a time when at least 15 states have enacted laws that ban or restrict students’ use of cell phones in public schools, or at a minimum, recommend local school districts enact their own bans or restrictions.
READ MORE: States are restricting cellphones in schools, Mississippi could be next
Hopson’s bill states that a school may include exceptions to allow a student to possess or use a cell phone in case of an emergency or threat of danger, when medically necessary, or if needed for an educational program.
As previously reported, lawmakers have cited concerns over mental health and distractions in the classroom as the reason for the push among state lawmakers to curb cell phone use in schools.
A Mississippi Senate Mental Health Task Force meeting in September 2024 took the issue up as a priority discussion, with chairman Senator David Parker (R) saying the group had analyzed and looked at data from many sources.
“Those sources include books like The Anxious Generation and feedback from leaders in education and mental health. We have also looked at actions being considered and taken in other states,” Parker said.
In one section of the book, author Jonathan Haidt discusses the harms that result from the new “phone-based childhood,” with a chapter devoted to harms to girls, a chapter on harm to boys, and a chapter on the “spiritual degradation” that is happening from phone-based lives.
Senator Parker later told Magnolia Tribune that cell phone use is creating a crisis that is reflected in countless areas in schools.
Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann (R), the chamber’s presiding officer, has publicly backed statewide cell phone restrictions in public school classrooms. He has expressed support for legislation to allow local districts to determine how best to negotiate the concerns surrounding cell phone use while still protecting classroom learning from distractions.
An August 2024 Mississippi Department of Education MDE survey of school district superintendents showed 12 percent of responding school districts allowed elementary students to access or use cell phones during non-instructional time compared to 33 percent in middle school and 76 percent in high school. During instructional time, 17 percent of district respondents allowed elementary students to access their cell phones while the number rose in middle school to 31 percent and in high school to 52 percent.
READ MORE: Majority of Mississippi school districts allow students access to cellphones. That could change
Similar bills to Senator Hopson’s measure have been filed in the House of Representatives this session regarding limiting or restricting cell phone use in public schools. Those include:
- HB 167, filed by State Rep. Omeria Scott (D)
- HB 673, filed by State Rep. Sam Creekmore (R)
- HB 684, filed by State Rep. John Faulkner (D)
- HB 818, filed by State Rep. Kimberly Remak (R)
All of the bills, including Hopson’s in the Senate, have been referred to the Education Committee in their respective chamber.
Frank Corder
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